Northumbria

Northumbria was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in northern England and southeastern Scotland which existed from 654 to 876, with York serving as its capital. The kingdom was formed as the amalgamation of Deira and Bernicia in 654, and it extended from the River Humber and the River Mersey in the south to the Firth of Forth in Scotland in the north. In 865, the Great Heathen Army of Vikings invaded Northumbria to avenge the death of Ragnarr Lodbrok at the hands of King Aella of Northumbria, and the Vikings took York in 867 and had Aella gruesomely executed. Northumbria became the seat of Scandinavian culture in England for the next century, and it became the Viking kingdom of Northymbre.